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The wall shimmered and faded. She stepped through it.
I bolted forward at my chance to escape. The wall shimmered at the last moment and I crashed into it. I beat on it with my fists, feet, knees, and elbows, hammering it with everything I had.
Panting and out of breath, “Lily” began to fade away, her skin melting like molten lava had been poured over her head. She transformed into a creature I had only ever seen at a distance through the observation window above the Prize Pool.
She was a shifter!
She smirked at me as her skin stitched itself back together and reformed her face and original clothing. Her smile was sharp and could have cut. She turned on her heel and marched away.
Just when I thought I had a friend, someone on the outside to argue my case, my hopes were dashed and taken from me.
The guards followed on her heels but not up the stairs into the new supervisor’s quarters. They took their place outside the laboratory.
It had all been for show.
A scam.
I’d been manipulated.
Again.
I was angrier than I had ever been, not only for me, but for the creature fermenting in my belly.
I burst into tears, no doubt due to the emotional upheaval that occurred when a woman was with child.
I collapsed on the floor again.
Trayem.
He was my only hope.
But there was no way for me to send him a message, no way for him to come and rescue me.
I hadn’t wanted anything to do with Trayem before I discovered I was pregnant. Now I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more than his kind and forgiving arms.
I luxuriated in that memory and wondered when—or if—I would ever see him again.
An indeterminate amount of time later—I guess it was a few hours, possibly half a day. The only time marker I had was the grogginess I felt when I awoke on the floor.
I slipped into a deep well of depression after “Lily” left my room. I’d been suckered into thinking she was my friend. I should have known right away that wasn’t the case.
Because it’d never been the case.
The only time she’d been kind to me or any of the other girls was after that first day of being claimed by a fighter. And she hadn’t done that because she cared about any of us. She did it because she didn’t want to lose her girls.
Her responsibility was to take care of us and that meant reducing the chances of suicide. A little kindness went a long way.
I shook my head at my own stupidity. Of course, it hadn’t been Lily.
From now on, I would suspect everyone. It wasn’t like I didn’t know there weren’t shifters in the galaxy. There were many in the prison alone.
And I still hadn’t figured a way to escape this place.
And no way to contact Trayem.
I was trapped and there was no way out.
I felt at my stomach. Was it protruding already? Was it turning a little bulbous and round? I thought it was. When I lifted up my shirt and looked closer, placing my hand to the surface, I could swear it was bulging a little…
